Cross-border tourism services

RestoRus

RestoRus - degree programme in tourism for native Russian speakers. Russian are the biggest tourist group in Finland, also in Kainuu and Oulu regions. Competition in Russian tourism is intensive in Finland and, situation has changed more complex in 2014 because numbers of Russian tourists have decreased. There must be actions taken in order to increase RUssian tourists. Developing of competences and skills is one of key actions.

Main objectives of the project are:

To enhance Russian speaking immigrants to improve their position in job market by increasing their level of education.

To improve competitiveness of tourism business by education competent workforce and to develope their services for Russian tourists.

To develope together with tourism business in Kainuu and Oulu regions through different studying methods.

To create tandem studying model in which FInnish and Russian speaking tourism students are supporting each others' learning.

To increase cooperation between Kajaani university of Applied Sciences with tourism enterpreneurs in Kainuu and Oulu region.

Education programme is for Russian speakers who are living in Finland.

Education programme includes both classroom studies and distant learning. There is a strong emphasis on learning Finnish language. That will be done through special language support from teachers, furthermore the student group will learn languges with Finnish speakers group. That is so called ' tandem teaching method'. Also in English language, aim is to reach good level for working in field of tourism.

White Road

Cross Border Tourism Development in Northern Finland and the Republic of Karelia. The objective of the project is to increase inbound tourism in Kainuu, Kuusamo and the Republic of Karelia by creating new, high quality travel products that correspond to the requirements of and are easily obtainable by the modern customer from Russia, Finland or Central Europe. As a network, new travel products and services can in turn be marketed as new cross-border Touristic Routes which facilitate the cross-border visit enhancing the attractiveness of the region within the domestic market and act as an add-on for the foreign tourist. This will be implemented in co-operation between active tourism entrepreneurs on both sides of the border, the focus being in the joint development of services and products as well as joint marketing activity and novel marketing methods (e-solutions, social media).

Russian Tourism Competence Needs in Future

This project targeted in Kainuu includes three themes: 1) comparing the competition position of Russian tourism in Kainuu to other regions based on statistics and research; 2) creating a profile of Russian shopping tourists and vacationers based on tourist surveys and interviews; 3) clarifying the views of tourism experts on Russian tourism competence needs. The results were used to make a policy programme presenting the main policies for developing Russian tourism in Kainuu. Read more about Russian Tourism in the Kainuu Region 2013 (in Finnish).

Funding: European Social Fund
Budget: 46 000 €
Time 2013-2014

From Borders to Shared Space

The objective of this project is to build a permanent and developing Research, Development and Innovation partner network for Finnish border areas (Sweden, Norway, Estonia and Russia), creating contacts for both new and developing business activity. Such developing areas of business especially in the border areas include e.g. subcontracting and technical services, service and maintenance, constructions, tourism and adventure services, health services and logistic services. The project involves seven Finnish universities of applied sciences and several companies and organisations.